4 June 2019 - Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, will investigate whether doctors who charge ­unnecessarily high fees that leave patients and their families in ­severe financial pain, should be punished.

Professor Murphy will determine whether there is a threshold at which billing becomes so unethical it should be considered malpractice.

Doctors can currently charge any price for their services. Amid debate over patients crowd-­funding to see private brain ­surgeon Charlie Teo, Professor Murphy said he was concerned when anyone went to such ­extremes to pay for treatment that was available without charge in the public system.

Read The Australian article